Select Committee on Social Security First Report


APPENDIX 15

Note by Assistant Clerk on Committee visit to Preston and Blackpool on Tuesday, 20 October 1998[54]

1. FAMILY CREDIT HELPLINE, WARBRECK HOUSE, BLACKPOOL

Family Credit Helpline

  John Tirrell, Manager of the Helpline, introduced Gail Bone, one of the unit managers. Gail Bone then gave a presentation on the history and working of the helpline.

History

  Family Credit was launched in April 1988. The Central Telephone Answering Service (CTAS) was introduced to deal with enquiries. CTAS had 20 lines and 14 staff. Its opening hours were 8.30 am to 5 pm.

  In 1990 Call Scan was introduced—a computerised system which kept track of all incoming calls and produced daily printouts of call handling times, volume of call traffic etc. There were 40 lines and 28 agent positions. In 1992 with a need for further expansion the revolutionary idea of recruiting for part-time, fixed hour staff was introduced. This was a job specific, external recruitment. An in-house training course of one week was devised to train staff in telephone techniques, customer service and all aspects of the benefit rules and regulations.

  In late 1992 the then Government announced the Back to Work initiative. With the increased volume of calls that this was likely to result in, a complete overhaul of CTAS was required. Automated Call Distribution (ACD) was introduced. ACD enabled more accurate monitoring of calls. The Family Credit Helpline had been re-launched by Alistair Burt in April 1993.

Helpline today

  There are 100 incoming lines and 188 staff (equivalent to 133.497 full-time workers due to the large number of part-time workers).

  Between 55,000 and 60,000 calls are answered each week. Only 2 per cent of all calls are transferred to Operational Commands, illustrating the efficiency of the helpline.

  There are dedicated lines for District Offices, Welfare Rights Organisations, Citizens Advice Bureaux, and Job Seekers' Allowance/Child Support Agency staff. There is a textphone for the hearing impaired.

  The Family Credit helpline:

    —  has a call back service for Self-Employed customers (because of the complexity of their enquiries);

    —  offers foreign language call backs;

    —  has the ability to provide benefit entitlement estimates through the Integrated Benefit Information System (IBIS);

    —  issues duplicate forms/award notices;

    —  has a tagging facility which enables accurate monitoring of calls;

    —  conducts a Quarterly Customer Opinion Survey;

    —  has a highly skilled training team;

    —  has regular liaison meetings with other Call Centres—to share best practice.

  In the year ending April 1998, approximately 4.5 million calls were received—of which 3 million were answered. There are a large number of repeat calls. The average call time was 2 minutes.

Issues raised in discussion

    —  there is no evidence that the full cost of the telephone calls is a disincentive. Many callers telephone from work;

    —  most calls are meaningful—perhaps reflecting the fact that the calls are being paid for at the full national rate;

    —  despite the passage of time, the helpline is still state-of-the-art. In particular, the caller who has been waiting for the longest period of time is automatically selected;

    —  staff will need to work extra hours in future because of the change over to the Inland Revenue. This will not present a problem because of the large number of part-time workers.

  There followed a tour of the helpline in which Members were given the opportunity to listen in on live calls.

Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance

  Mick Carey, Director of Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance, gave a presentation on the two units (see Annex for the text of the presentation). Mr Carey made several additional points in response to questions from Members.

  The fact that the administration of the two benefits is centralised means that the units are responsive to change. Systems can be developed and monitored centrally.

  The Secretary of State's target focusses on accuracy (as opposed to speed). The target is for 91 per cent of cases to be paid the right amount of money. This target has been reached in the year-to-date (the current figure is 92 per cent).

  In terms of the Securing Family Credit project, the most significant area of fraud is in the confirmation of employees wages by employers. Checks are not carried out with the Inland Revenue. This is because Family Credit is based on the current wage at the time of the claim, whereas the Inland Revenue looks at wages retrospectively. This area is being looked at with the imminent move to the Inland Revenue.

  The Benefits Agency can and does carry out checks with employers. It is, however, very difficult to check on the level of wages and number of hours worked at the time of the claim. There has not been a thorough investigation of fraud because it is only recently that it has become a big issue. Moreover, it would be very costly to visit all claimants.

  There is a tension between the need to address fraud and the need for efficient and rapid processing of claims. Trying to check details at the time of payment would make it very difficult to achieve the internal target of processing new claims within 5 days. As a result, claims are checked after payment.

  Mr Carey's final point was that his view and that of both independent organisations and benefit claimants is that the Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance operations are of a very high quality.

Working Family Tax Credit (WFTC)

  Sue Walsh, Director of the WFTC, gave a presentation on the structure of the project and the manner in which it was being planned and taken forward. Several points arose in response to questions from Members.

  Different areas of expertise from the Inland Revenue and the DSS are being brought together in the fight against fraud. The various risks and options are being looked at. It is important, however, that the issue of fraud is balanced against the aim of encouraging people back into work.

  Tony Ornhial from the Inland Revenue said that confidential consultations have occurred with employer organisations. The Inland Revenue will soon be able to put together a package of proposals for bringing employers on board which will be presented to Ministers.

2. FAMILY CREDIT OPERATION COMMAND, PRESTON

  Phil Moore, Acting Head of Family Credit and Disability Working Allowance Operations, and Caroline Davies, Manger of Command 12, spoke about the working of their section and answered questions. John Heath gave a presentation on the Departmental Central Index (DCI).

Operational Command 12

  There are peaks in workload in April and October. The introduction of WFTC in October 1999 is likely to result in a very high workload.

  The biggest difficulty faced is the fact that the 16-page claim form is rarely completed in full.

  There are some difficulties with employers. These are often dealt with by the Customer Service Section.

  There is a high turnover of staff—though many do remain within the DSS. The levels of sickness vary from 4.5 per cent to 7.6 per cent between sections. Benefit Agency guidelines exist in this area and the Family Credit Unit is developing its own guidelines within the constraints of those of the Benefit Agency as a whole. There is acknowledgement by management that more effort needs to be made with graduates. Management is focussing on improving working relations.

  The implications of Scottish devolution are being addressed.

  The Members were shown examples of a claim form being processed.
Targets
Accuracy — 91 per cent
Express Clearance — 90 per cent in 5 days (for new claims)
Renewal Clearance— 60 per cent in 13 days
— 95 per cent in 42 days
Appeals Clearance— 69 per cent in 28 days
— 94 per cent in 90 days
Reviews Clearance— 65 per cent in 16 days
— 85 per cent in 30 days

The Departmental Central Index (DCI)

  The job of the DCI is to trace the National Insurance number of the claimant as a way of confirming identification. It is possible to discover the benefits history of a claimant.

  If a record cannot be found, the customer is invited to the local office. Only 6 out of 6,000 claimants invited to their local office were found to have an NI number. This illustrates the efficiency of the DCI.

  Inland Revenue records are based on tax record numbers (not NI numbers). So the addition of tax record numbers to DCI would be useful with the introduction of the WFTC.

  The Members were given a demonstration of the working of the Departmental Central Index.

Peter Shelley

22 October 1998


54   Members taking part in the visit were: Mr Archy Kirkwood (Chairman), Mr Edward Leigh and Mr Malcolm Wicks. Back


 
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